How is it that a team that had such sluggish stretches against the likes of Pepperdine and Yale could bury 19th-ranked Kentucky from the outset without letting up as Kansas University did Saturday in a 73-46 bully number at Allen Fieldhouse?
“I think it was the crowd, ESPN, the big rivalry,” emerging freshman guard Mario Chalmers said. “Coach got us really psyched up for the game, too.”
Said Brandon Rush: “I figured it would be a one- or two-point game. We just came out and played harder than they did.”
Coach Bill Self played on the storied histories of the programs to get the players jacked.
“It was a great rivalry between us and Kentucky,” freshman forward Julian Wright said. “Coach was telling us it was a big game. Both basketball programs have a lot of pride. We had to go out there and give the fans what they deserve.”
Added Russell Robinson: “You don’t have to say too much. All you’ve got to say is, ‘It’s Kentucky.'”
Self never feared the players wouldn’t be up for the game.
“I really thought we’d be too amped up,” Self said. “Maybe the 11 o’clock start helped us. We weren’t quite thinking about it all day long, so we didn’t get more anxious butterflies.”
KU practiced what Self has been preaching since the first day of practice. The Jayhawks played intense, helping man-to-man defense, ran the fast break at every opportunity and did so without being sloppy.
“We have been working at bringing more intensity, focusing more and being more hard-nosed on defense,” Chalmers said. “Practice makes perfect, and we are trying to get perfection.”
Self indicated practices had “been interesting the last three weeks,” he said with a smile. He has had players run extra sprints and hop on a treadmill to run when committing unacceptable mistakes like not blocking out.
“That’s probably been the motivation as much as anything,” Self said. “We are practicing harder. : The last two to three weeks we’ve probably been tougher on them than any time this year.”
